SHS Claw

Nxworries Yes Lawd!

In October of 2016 New Jersey producer, Knxwledge and Anderson .Paak of California collaborated to bring one of the years most interesting and soulful debut albums. With Slick throwback production reminiscent of the 70’s. This “Throwback” feeling carries throughout the entire project even in the singing and songwriting. 2016 XXL freshman Anderson .Paak is the main vocalist in the duo and he does the album so much justice. From the way his voice stands out when singing on tracks like ‘What more can I say’ to his energetic sauve rapping on other tracks such as ‘link up’.

When this album shines it shines very bright. Some of the best highlights of this album for me are songs such as the urbane and debonair ‘Suede’, the sexy deep cut of ‘Lyk Dis’ , the honest braggadocious ‘Another time’, and lastly the smooth and apologetic song ‘Sidepiece’. Each of these tracks show the versatility of this duo and how they nonchalant flow between R&B and Hip Hop through the entire album. It’s almost impossible not to be sitting back and relaxing while this album plays in the background.

My only main issue with this album is .Paak seems so obsessed with dating the overall sound of the album to the point where some of his lyrical content begins to sound sexist and or shallow. Unfortunately this shallowness carries over into a few of my favorite tracks. One of them being ‘Suede’ .Paak says in the chorus of the song “If I call you a b****, It’s cause you’re my b****, And as long as no one else call you a b****, Then there won’t be no problems.” Clearly this is not okay.

The album covers an array of emotions and topics that show the listener the extreme highs and lows and the singers travels. The instrumentation from producer Knxwledge helps the listener digest each of these lyrics to a sound reminiscent of one MF Doom. Overall, I think other then the shallow and sexist content of some of the songs, I think that this is a exceedingly strong and focused project from NxWorries and I can’t wait for a follow up to this album.